We all got our tax returns today.
Seeing as I didn't work all year, I'm only getting about $233. Still, I'm fine with that.
My younger brother, who worked his ass off all year, got $1600. He is now currently out buying a Wii.
Go fig'.
TwistedCyberChick is magnificent for making mention of the most important part of the previous post.
In other news, I watched the Tim Burton version of Sweeny Todd the other day. Enjoyed it quite a lot and now have the music in my head. So naturally that leads to YouTube, which leads to videos of the stage production . . . and those are pretty crazy. Seeing the mechanical trapdoor chair on stage is like, almost unbelievable by how well it all works . . . so I'm watching those now.
Wanna know what else is great about the stage shows? In one production, Neil Patrick Harris plays Toby. And Neil Patrick Harris in anything is a thing of beauty. He doesn't even have to be snorting coke off a prostitute's chest, either.
Ahem.
Anyway, a quick shout out to all you folks who took a fun trip of nostalgia with me on my other World where I reminded everyone of all the psychotic comments I've written for others, be they about Chi-Com strength serums or schismatic Scottish clans. Those were the immediate ones that came to mind anyway . . . anyone remember any others I may have ever done?
I should check Flint's pages . . .
This is from the Anime Evolution forums (1 of 4 sites that take up all my online time these days):
http://animeevolution.net/index.php?topic=7773.0
Gotta say . . . I smiled a little more as this week carried on with this thread . . .
. . . in other news, orange juice mixed with Canada Dry ginger ale is very tasty - kinda tastes like Fanta, but with pulp. I do enjoy that pulp, gotta say . . .
Wow, so I had fun this past day! Thanks everyone who gave their 2 cents in last day's post - I think you'll enjoy this next bit.
First off, I'll say that I can like, just barely hear the thing on slightly higher-than-normal volume . . . like, it's really quiet for me.
So let's get into this . . .
Alright, so if any of you did the URL-hopping, you would have learned that that the site was called http://www.noloitering.ca and that it was a site selling the "Mosquito Ultrasonic Teen Deterrent".
Here's the sciencey bit:
As you age, your hearing deteriorates - probably stating the obvious, huh? Here's the kicker: as you get older, you lose the ability to hear certain high frequency sounds. As such, that tone I posted yesterday is something most adults lose the ability to hear once they get to about the age of 25 or so. This is literally a noise that only people aged about 15-25 can hear.
Actually, that's not quite true. children younger than 13 should also be able to hear it; however, as their hearing is still more sensitive, they can actually hear even higher frequency sounds. As such, that high-pitched tone so many of you heard isn't in their extreme registers and thus is not quite as . . . annoying, of a noise for them. Once you get into that particular age group, though, hoo boy . . . that's like, the highest, most extreme possible frequency you can hear, and as such it's not very pleasant (or is it? You tell me).
So why is this awesome?
So this group in the UK invented it: the Mosquito Ultrasonic Teen Deterrent. Basically, it's a sound device that plays this noise. People like shop owners and theater owners are installing these outside or above their front doors. If they have problems with, say, young teens loitering and causing trouble, they can hit the on switches and encourage the youths to get a move on. From what I understand it's not that it's painful, it's just really, really annoying.
Hehe, Stupid Ed told me he actually had the sound file and brought it to work at Microsoft, just slowly walking through the offices pissing people off . . . I think that's hilarious.
Pretty badass, huh?
This is Discriminatory!
It gets even better . . . teens, while being the main targets of this audio repellent, have actually found a way to use it for their own means:
Ringtones; ones they can hear, but their older in-class teachers cannot.
I really don't need to explain that one much more, do I?
So that's the Mosquito.
So again, take this information, take your own ears, and think about what that means. If you're 20 and already can't hear it, then well . . . hehe, dang. If you're almost 30 and can still hear it, well . . . congrats for having some powerful ears still!
Oh, for the record, if anyone who can't hear the Mosquito tone are curious, here's a link to the lower-frequency tone (DO NOT crank your volume for this!):
http://www.noloitering.ca/over25yo.mp3
Practical Science is fun, eh?
Alright, some of you may or may not hate me for this, but I'm so curious right now . . .
Alright, basically all I want you guys to do is to listen to this following sound file; you don't need to change your volume settings, and I promise it won't be suddenly loud and scary or anything:
http://www.noloitering.ca/dl/mosquitotone.mp3
Comment below on what you think of this. Get your friends to listen and comment as well.
I'll explain the rest tomorrow (unless you can't wait and decide to do some e-snooping of your own afterwards).
